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Antietam: A Civil Catastrophe

The UConn community has been discussing civility over the past few weeks, and a recent panel discussion led by President Herbst talked about the challenge that incivility poses to our democracy. Whenever I hear a conversation about political civility, I find myself thinking of the U.S. Civil War – the most cataclysmic failure of civil discourse in our nation’s political history, and at the same time the event that redeemed the nation’s commitment to the principle that “all men are created equal.”

Such reflection is particularly timely, because today marks the 150th anniversary of the Battle of Antietam, the bloodiest day of conflict in American history. More than 3,600 soldiers were killed when the Union’s Army of the Potomac under Gen. George McClellan attacked the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia, commanded by Robert E. Lee, at the town of Sharpsburg, Md.

The story of Antietam is tragic, but also immensely frustrating. As Richard Slotkin, in his recent book The Long Road to Antietam: How the Civil War Became a Revolution, explains in devastating detail, McClellan had a deep reluctance to fight, an almost comical arrogance, treasonous political views, and a decided tendency to overestimate enemy forces by a factor of two. Nevertheless, he managed to find himself confronting Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia with twice Lee’s numbers, while Lee’s army was exhausted from forced marches and had its back to a river. By using only a portion of his army and deploying it in pieces, McClellan sacrificed numerical superiority and the advantages of terrain and achieved only a hideously bloody draw. To make matters worse, he failed to pursue Lee’s badly damaged force when it moved south back into Virginia, missing an opportunity to cripple the Army of Northern Virginia and potentially end the war.

Still, Antietam should be remembered now as more than a bloody day of individual heroism under inept leadership. As Slotkin describes, its significance stems much more from its impact on the political environment of the war. During the summer of 1862, as Abraham Lincoln watched the failure of the Union’s Peninsula campaign and struggled to find a general who was both loyal and competent to command the Union forces, he reached the conclusion that he could no longer separate the saving of the Union from the abolition of slavery. To save the Union, he would have to end slavery.

Abraham Lincoln and George B. McClellan in the general’s tent at Antietam, Md., Oct. 3, 1862. (Wikimedia Commons, photo from United States Library of Congress’s Prints and Photographs division)

In July of 1862, Lincoln surprised his cabinet with his plan to issue an emancipation proclamation. They urged him to wait for a military victory before announcing it so that it came from a position of strength. Antietam, for all its flaws, was enough of a victory for that purpose, and five days after the battle Lincoln published his preliminary proclamation.

Surely it would have been infinitely better if we could have reached the emancipation proclamation, and the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments, and equal voting rights, and (someday) a truly just society, through a civil political process. But I do not forget that it was a “civil” process that created the 3/5ths compromise and established the United States as a free nation built on slavery – a moral contradiction that was only resolved by a war that took the lives of over 600,000 Americans.

Slavery had to end – it had to – and looking back 150 years to the bloodbath at Antietam, I recall Lincoln’s words: if the war continued, by God’s will, “until all the wealth piled by the bondsman’s two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another drawn with the sword,” then one must still conclude that “the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.”

Read more posts by Jeremy Teitelbaum, dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, on his blog.

Join us for a talk by Gina Barreca,2018 UCONN BOARD OF TRUSTEESDISTINGUISHED PROFESSOR OF ENGLISH

All great works of fiction, poetry and dramaâas well as texts forming mythologies, religions, national epics to heroic sagasâhave loneliness at the heart of their narrative. From Persephone to Peter Pan, from âFrankensteinâ to âFrozen,â the stories we pass along are saturated with unwilling isolation.âOnly around half of Americans say they have meaningful, daily face-to-face social interactions,â according to a 2017 study. A former U.S. Surgeon General argues that âWe live in the most technologically connected age in the history of civilization, yet rates of loneliness have doubled since the 1980s.â We need more than social media. We need social contact. We need community. How can we break through the loneliness barrier? Being alone when in need of companionship is more than sad; itâs an epidemic.Chronic loneliness is as bad for your health as smoking 15 cigarettes per day. We need to change our national story and, often, our personal ones as well.Even the concept of the âlone wolfâ is a myth. Wolves hunt in packs.

Reception to follow.

For more information about this event, or if you are an individual who requires special accommodation to participate, please contact the CLAS Deanâs Office at (860) 486-2713.

A liberal arts and sciences degree prepares students with the tools they need to excel across a wide range of careers. Given the number of options available to you, it can be overwhelming to narrow down career choices. Attending CLAS Career Night will provide you exposure to career opportunities for CLAS students.

This semesterâs focus will be on research-based careers. During this event you will engage with CLAS alumni, learn about various occupations, and gain insight about how to best prepare for your future career.

The McNair Scholars Program and the Office of Undergraduate Research invite you to join us for a brown bag research seminar.

Birds, Bacteria, and Bioinformatics: Why Evolutionary Biology is the Best

Sarah Hird, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Molecular and Cell Biology

This series is open to all undergraduate and graduate students, and is designed especially for students conducting (or interested in conducting) STEM research. These seminars are opportunities to learn about research being pursued around campus, to talk with faculty about their path into research, and to ask questions about getting involved in research.

About CLAS

The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences is the academic core of learning and research at UConn. We are committed to the full spectrum of academics across the sciences, social sciences, and humanities. We give students a liberal arts and sciences education that empowers them with broad knowledge, transferable skills, and an ability to think critically about important issues across a variety of disciplines.